What Our Love Was
by waterfallphoenix
Summary: Oralie didn't first meet Kenric Elgar Fathdon, the love of her life, when they were Councillors and romance was forbidden. When they first met, they were young prodigies at Foxfire, and anything was possible.
1. Chapter 1

Oralie's first ever session at Foxfire was Empathy. She had manifested unusually early, at the age of eleven. It hadn't been anything of particular interest-just the famous ethics lecture. Still, she felt self-conscious in the Level Two wing-she didn't want people to think she felt she was better than them. She couldn't even rely on them not knowing, as Sir Terik had announced her abilities to the whole school.

She entered the lunchroom late, having gotten lost on her way back from class. She took a little bit of food and turned around to find an empty table.

Except there were no empty tables.

She began to nibble at her lunch as she looked frantically around the room to find somewhere that looked welcoming. But even the other Level Ones were chatting excitedly. They probably all knew each other from outside of school. She wished her parents had given her opportunities to be with other people her age.

"Can't find a spot?" asked a voice behind her suddenly.

"No," she sighed.

She turned around to face a Level Two boy with wild red hair and a wide grin. "Oralie, right? I'm Kenric." He held out his hand.

She nodded and shook it.

"I usually get here early and snatch a table for myself, but my Telepathy mentor kept me late."

"Ethics lecture?"

"Yeah. Second time I've had it. For some reason he felt the need to constantly reiterate that I'm not allowed to read minds without permission. I think he just needed something to say. He said that, like, every other sentence. So why are you late?"

"I got lost."

"Oh. Well, if you ever need help finding your class ..."

Oralie smiled. "Thanks."

Kenric took a bite of his food and made a face. "Now how exactly do they manage to make gnomish food taste bad?"

Oralie laughed and shrugged.

"It gets better," he assured her. "Just be careful when you're opening your locker. I swear, half of these mentors just want to watch us suffer."

"I've heard."

Kenric tilted his head to the side.

"My brother is in Level Five. He specifically instructed me not to sit with him at lunch though. And my sister just started the elite levels."

"Oh."

Still standing next to where the line would be, they continued to eat their food in silence.

The bell rang.

"See you!" Kenric flashed a smile at Oralie as he went off to his next class. Oralie smiled and waved.

He was kinda cute.

* * *

"Who was the guy you were hanging out with at lunch?" Oralie's brother, Aden, asked her the moment they got home.

"Kenric."

"Kenric Fathdon?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know his last name?"

"You usually introduce yourself by your first name ..."

"I guess ..."

"Do you know more than one Kenric?"

"No."

"Is there another Kenric in Level Two?"

"No."

"So why is his last name important?"

"It's not."

"Okay. I'm going to get changed." Her cape was starting to bother her. She turned to go inside.

"YOU'RE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO START DATING!" Aden yelled after her.

"Why would I want to date him?" Oralie yelled back.

Aden sighed, defeated yet again by his younger sister.

* * *

The next day, Oralie had physical education in the morning. The Level Ones were practicing telekinesis (they all had prior experience), which, unfortunately, proved to be quite difficult for her.

The Mentors had them line up in two lines facing each other. The space between the two lines was divided into three sections, and in the middle section was an object for each pair of prodigies facing each other. It was a simple game: use telekinesis to lift the object and get it to the section closest to you before the other person gets it to their section. The girl Oralie was paired against had olive skin, midnight blue eyes, and thick black hair that fell to her shoulders. She looked … unfriendly.

"I'm Velia," she said. Her tone was resentful. Oralie opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Velia interrupted. "I haven't had the pleasure of my name being announced to everyone on my first day at Foxfire."

Oralie didn't know what to say to that, so she just looked down at the piece of knotted rope she was supposed to get to her side. _Telekinetic abilities, don't fail me now,_ she thought.

"Ready," began the Mentor. Velia looked determined, to say the least.

"Set …" Oralie tried to prepare herself mentally, but it wasn't quite her strong suit—she was an Empath, not a Telepath.

"GO!"

Before Oralie could even think, Velia had the rope on her side. She smirked. "I guess the legendary Oralie isn't as great and powerful as she seems to be."

Oralie bit back tears. _No,_ she told herself firmly. _You will not cry on your second day at Foxfire._

She lost her next game with a boy who didn't even bother to say anything, and the game after that, with another boy who didn't bother to say anything. Her third game was with a girl who was crying.

"Go ahead," she said, without looking up. "Judge me. I won't care."

"What happened?" asked Oralie curiously.

" _Velia_ happened."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"I'm Charlotte," she said, tying back her thin, wavy waist-length blonde hair. Realizing that the other pairs had already started their telekinetic battles, she picked up one end of the rope and pulled it to her side. "You can call me Carly."

"Hey!" exclaimed Oralie, grabbing the other side of the rope and attempting to pull it from Carly's grasp. "That's cheating!"

"Charlotte! Oralie! Telekinesis, please!"

* * *

After class, Oralie found Carly chatting with another Level One as they walked to lunch. "Hey Oralie!" she called, gesturing for her to come over. "This is Annabelle," she said, introducing the other girl, who was tall with light brown hair tied back and bright turquoise eyes.

"Hi!" said Annabelle.

The three girls talked (a bit awkwardly, as they were eleven-year-olds who had just met each other) as they made their way to the glass pyramid. They each took a little bit of the food that looked least awful and looked around for a place to sit.

"Oh, come on! What exactly is so hard about leaving an empty table?" exclaimed Annabelle, frustrated.

"Hey, that redhead over there doesn't look too evil," said Carly, pointing to a table across the room.

Oralie's heart fluttered a little when she realized it was Kenric sitting there.

Annabelle shrugged. "Better than sitting on the floor."

They looked to Oralie. "Okay," she said shyly.

Kenric looked up from his lunch as the girls approached. "Hello, Oralie," he said.

"Mind if we sit here?" she asked.

"Well, it's not like the table is full," he said, grinning. "I'm Kenric."

"I'm—" Carly paused, taking a bite of her food. "Carly, and this is Annabelle." She gestured to Annabelle.

* * *

"Well, I'm off to Agriculture," said Kenric, grabbing his bag and tray.

"Bye!" said Oralie.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Carly turned to Oralie. "How do you know a cute Level Two guy?" she demanded.

Oralie rolled her eyes. "He talked to me at lunch yesterday."

Annabelle giggled, and Oralie glared.

"Keep us updated on your love life," said Carly with a wink.

Oralie sighed. _Girls,_ she thought.

* * *

 **AN: My first KOTLC chapter fic! I hope it's not _too_ awful. I know this chapter isn't very interesting, but I promise there will be plot eventually.**

 **word count - 1225**


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of Oralie's week wasn't anything of much interest. She continued to sit with Carly, Annabelle, and Kenric at lunch and study hall, she learned how to read emotions, and practiced some other basics. Finally, it was the weekend. She said goodbye to her friends and raced to the Leapmaster, hoping to get home before her brother. Fortunately, Aden had already begun to get absorbed in Level Five drama and had completely forgotten about what weekends meant for them (him and Oralie, that is) this year.

"NYSSE!" she cried, spotting an elf dressed in gold already making her way towards their house. She ran towards her sister and tackled her in a giant hug.

"Hey!" said Nysse, hugging her back. She had the same blonde hair and pale blue eyes that Oralie had—they were practically twins, except Nysse was older. "How's Foxfire?"

"It's great!" replied Oralie enthusiastically.

"Aden forgot about me and decided to go out with his girlfriend tonight, and Mom and Dad are busy with work. Let's go get changed and then I'll tell you about the evil plans."

Oralie smiled mischievously, recalling their previous pranks on Aden. "Are we going to put muskog perfume in his room again?"

"Not this time. I don't think they make muskog perfume anymore anyway." Nysse sighed sadly. "But trust me, it's going to be good."

"Okay."

Once they had both changed into casual tunics and pants, they met in Nysse's room. "So," she began, conjuring a plate of mallowmelt (Nysse was a Conjurer), "I think it's about time we hosted an epic version of the Slinky Games."

Slinky was a tiny imp with barely any fur and just about the ugliest creature you could find. Aden and his friends had found him while playing base quest. He had wanted to kill him, but Nysse and Oralie decided to keep him. They started trying to make him do random little things for fun, like climbing walls or stealing pins. The tasks got increasingly harder, like putting on a nexus and light leaping to random places. And thus began the Slinky Games: one person would come up with a task for Slinky to do, and the other would have to make him do it without actually doing it for him. Though some of their friends felt bad for the poor imp, Slinky felt quite proud of his achievements.

"Define 'epic,'" said Oralie.

"We're going to need some recruits."

"Have anyone in mind?"

Nysse pulled out her Imparter. "Show me Clarette."

A girl with tan skin and golden curls that fell just below her shoulders appeared. This was Clarette, Nysse's best friend. "Hi, Nysse!" said Clarette.

"Hey, can you come over tonight?"  
"Sure."

"And bring your sister."

Clarette looked surprised, but didn't ask. "Okay."

* * *

About five minutes later, Clarette, along with another figure Oralie couldn't recognize from a distance, glittered in. Nysse and Oralie ran to greet them. "Oralie!" shouted the younger girl as she came into view.

"Carly!"

"Wait … Nysse is your sister?"

"Wait … Clarette is your sister?"

"Nysse didn't tell you?"

"Clarette didn't tell you?"

"No."

"No."

"Well, Clarette is my sister."

"Well, Nysse is my sister."

"I see we're not the only ones who have strange conversations," Clarette said to Nysse.

"I see we're _not_ the only ones who have strange conversations," Nysse responded in what might have been an opening to a strange conversation.

"So," began Clarette.

" _So_ ," repeated Nysse.

"Why are we here?"  
"Why _are_ we here?"

"I mean, why did you invite us?"

"Remember Slinky?"

"That pathetic little scrap of imp skin?"

"That pathetic little scrap of imp skin."

"And?"

"Remember the Slinky Games?"  
"Like, where you force the pathetic little scrap of imp skin to do stuff without doing it for him?"

"Like where you force the pathetic little scrap of imp skin to do stuff without doing it for him."

"Continue."

"Epic version."

Clarette smiled. " _Epic_ version."

* * *

Once Nysse and Oralie had explained the game to Carly and gotten Slinky out of his cage, they officially began the Epic Slinky Games. First it was Nysse's turn—she would give her dare to Oralie, who would see to it that Slinky carried out the task.

"First thing's first," she said. She cleared her throat. "Aden has committed the terrible crime of not being here at the beginning of my first weekend home from the elite levels of Foxfire. He shall not go unpunished. Let us venture forth into his lair in order to inspect his belongings and decide on a suitable punishment."

"Do we have to sound all fancy like that?" Carly whispered to Oralie as they stood up, Nysse holding Slinky, and began to make their way to Aden's room.

"No, that's just Nysse being Nysse," Oralie whispered back.

Nysse opened the door and gestured for them to enter. She began to look around, trying to find something she—or rather, Slinky—could destroy. Eventually she settled on something. "I don't think he needs these, do you?" she said, holding up one of his overstuffed white pillows. "Get Slinky to destroy them. Oh, and make sure he knows it was me."

"With pleasure," said Oralie in their traditional way of accepting a Slinky-dare.

She took Slinky from Nysse and held him by his tail over Aden's pillows. He couldn't fly, so there was no chance of him getting away.

Then, very quickly, taking care to time herself precisely, she pinched the end of Slinky's tail, hard, to make him angry, then dropped him on the pile of pillows.

Oralie's strategy worked. If there was one thing Slinky couldn't stand, it was being pinched on the tail. No one really understood why, but the ugly imp was extremely protective of his tail and went into "raging ball of fury" mode whenever someone pinched it. Little pieces of fluff went flying everywhere as Slinky bit and clawed through the pillows rapidly.

Nysse cackled evilly.

"Okay, I think that's enough," laughed Oralie once all the pillows had been shredded to a giant pile of fabric and fluff. Though he was still fuming, Slinky stopped ripping through them. Oralie patted a spot near the corner of the bed and carefully guided the imp around so that an _N_ was cut into the sheets.

Nysse smiled. "Not bad," she said, "but I think he'll need some mallowmelt to get him back to normal."

"In that case," Oralie replied, "I think he should make some himself. Carly, it's your turn. Get Slinky to bake mallowmelt."  
"With pleasure," said Carly, in almost perfect mimicking of how Oralie had said it earlier. "Just show me where the ingredients are."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry it took me a while to update! I'm really busy with school and homework and tests and all that stuff. I know this chapter isn't particularly interesting either, but I need a little time to set things up and develop characters and stuff. It's pretty hard with this story because I have to make up all the characters and their personalities and all that because it doesn't really say much about Kenric and Oralie (or any of the other Councillors, except Bronte and Alina (I HATE YOU ALINA - sorry I just really hate her)). Anyway, I'll try and update soon.**

 **Thank you to TwilightSparkle16 and Reyna Kane for favoriting and to loustories, TwilightSparkle16, Xylia Neo, and Reyna Kayne for following.**

 **And special thank you to those of you who reviewed:**

 **Keeper: I know, why did it HAVE to be Kenric? IT COULD HAVE BEEN ALIN- oh wait, she became a Councillor after he died... anyway thanks for reviewing!**

 **Guest: THANKS!**

 **word count - 1,139**


	3. Chapter 3

Several hours, a huge mess, and one very, very annoyed imp later, Slinky's glob of "mallowmelt" was finally ready. "Huh," remarked Clarette, "I think you were right about him needing some mallowmelt."

"Okay, who's brave enough to taste it?" asked Oralie, looking slightly concerned about the level of impish cooking skills.

"Well, it was your idea," stated Carly.

"You were the one who actually did it," Oralie pointed out.

"I only did it because you dared me to."

"It would have turned out different had anyone else done it."

"Really? It would have turned out _much_ different had you not dared me to do it."

Oralie sighed, defeated, and took a spoonful of the mallowmelt.

"What, was imp fur the secret ingredient?" she spluttered, disgusted.

"He doesn't really have much of that …" said Nysse.

"Still," despaired Oralie, "mallowmelt is ruined forever."

"How about we leave the rest for the real culprit?" suggested Clarette, glancing at Slinky.

"Yeah … my turn?" said Carly.

"Once the pathetic little scrap of imp skin is done with his snack," said Clarette.

* * *

Once the "pathetic little scrap of imp skin" was done eating his mallowmelt—which, surprisingly, he found quite tasty—it was Carly's turn.

"I wonder if he's a good artist …"  
"Ummmmm …" Nysse laughed nervously.

"Not _really_ ," said Oralie.

Carly smiled. "Good. Clarette, get him to do your makeup."  
"What? No!"

Carly smirked.

"It's my face, Carly. You have no right!"

"Makeup washes off."

"Are you serious?"  
"Yes."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."  
Clarette looked pleadingly at Nysse for any hint of reassurance.

"You have to," said Nysse. "It's the rule."

Clarette sighed. "My makeup?"  
"What?" said Nysse.

"I'm not the Conjurer."

"I can only Conjure things if I know where they are."  
"You know perfectly well where my makeup is."

Nysse conjured Clarette's makeup, and Clarette began to order Slinky around.

* * *

"I can't look," said Clarette, refusing to look into a mirror.

"You can wash it off right away," Nysse reassured her.

Clarette took a deep breath and opened her eyes. At first there was a look of pure horror on her face, then pure rage. "CARLY, I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS."

Nysse, Carly, and Oralie all burst out laughing.

"My turn, huh?" she said, wiping Slinky's horrible artwork off her face. "Let's see, do I have any evil plots stored in the back of my mind?"

"Don't you dare make me make him prank Lady Aria," said Nysse. "You know she'll fail me."

"Oh, no, Nysse. I expect you to get him to hail Sir Terik."

"Wait, what?"

"On your imparter."

"Oh no no no no no no no."

"You made me make him do my makeup."  
"It wasn't my idea!"

"It's still the rule."  
"What about the 'within reason' rule?"

"I thought this was 'epic version'?"

Nysse sighed and pulled out her imparter. "I never thought I would be grateful that Oralie got me to teach him how to read when she was five."

"I still can't believe you actually did it," said Oralie.

Nysse grabbed a piece of paper and a pen that were lying around and scribbled something down. She placed Slinky down in front of her imparter and showed him the piece of paper.

* * *

Finally, Slinky got it right—only for the imparter to show the word "BLOCKED."

"So I taught him how to read, then I taught him to mimic. Pretty soon he'll be able to attend Foxfire."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure he'll manifest a special ability and then go on to join the nobility," said Clarette. "I can just see it: FIRST NON-ELF TO BE A COUNCILLOR IS UGLIEST IMP IN EXISTENCE."

Suddenly, Slinky started snoring.

"I think that's enough for today," said Nysse.

"Yeah, if we wake him up he'll bite someone's finger off," added Oralie.

* * *

On Monday, they had school again. Nysse went off to the Gold Tower, Aden got right back into the Level Five drama, and Oralie met up with Carly and Annabelle briefly before going off to her boring Empathy session. She was starting to make her way to lunch when she was stopped by a Level Two with auburn hair cut extremely short and eyes so dark they were almost black. "The famous Oralie," she said. "Didn't realize you'd be so … small. And, of course, Velia's told me how much of a disappointment you've been in physical education."

Oralie saw Velia smirking behind her and immediately knew that this wasn't much of a temporary problem.

"You know, some people suspect your special ability is fake," said the girl as she knocked past Oralie.

"And I know that you're just feeling jealous," said Oralie, able to read her emotions even from such brief contact.

"Proof of our theory," the girl responded.

It took everything Oralie had not to cry.

"That's no way to talk to your superior, Zarina," said a voice suddenly.

"My superior, Kenric? You do realize that's a firstie, don't you?"

"Any elf who has manifested is superior to one who hasn't; surely you've noticed that."

The girl called Zarina didn't respond.

"If you want to do great things, you need to acknowledge the way our world works. And, as of right now, Oralie is your superior."

"Excuse me?" Zarina was furious. "I will manifest. I cannot be labeled Talentless. I-"

"You most definitely can!" It soon turned into a heated argument.

"Kenric! Zarina! What exactly is going on?" They both began to explain, but the Mentor cut them off. "Never mind, both of you have detention at lunch for the rest of this week. Starting today."

"Sorry, Oralie," said Kenric.

"It's fine," Oralie responded, disappointed about not being able to see Kenric at lunch for the rest of the week but extremely happy that he would stand up for her.

"What happened?" asked Annabelle, coming up behind her.

"Zarina."

"Oh." Oralie, Carly, and Annabelle were Velia and Zarina's favorite victims.

"Kenric stood up for me, and they both got detention."

"How long?"

"Rest of the week."

"Aww."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've just been a little busy with life in general (school, you know...). Anyway, here's another chapter! I'm still kinda planning, so it might not get that interesting for a while. I hope it's good though!**

 **Thank you to pen. edge (I think fanfiction deletes your username because it thinks it's a link), Perilheart, and fluffybunnies13 for favoriting and to EmUnited, pen. edge, Perilheart, and fluffybunnies13 for following.**

 **And special thank you to those of you who reviewed:**

 **Keeper: I KNOW. I think I probably hate her too much because *SPOILER ALERT* I spent most of Neverseen thinking she actually killed Prentice... anyway thanks so much for reviewing!**

 **EmUnited: Yes, this will continue until they start working for the Council. Thanks for reviewing!**

 **pen. edge: Thank you so much!**

 **And thank you again to my friend StarDreamer02 for writing a Kenric/Oralie fanfic for my birthday! Even though it was totally obvious and maybe it would have been a little bit more of a surprise if you hadn't asked me for a theory that kept Kenric alive three times. You know, just saying.**

 **Hope I can update soon!**

 **word count - 1,038**


	4. Chapter 4

Though Oralie missed Kenric for the rest of the week, she enjoyed hanging out with just Carly and Annabelle. She thought Kenric might be enjoying it too (minus the fact that he was in detention); he'd been spending all his time with girls for the past week.

The three girls talked about their classes, their lives, and anything else they could think to talk about. They dreamt up some pranks to get back at Velia and Zarina (which would probably never happen, however much they wanted it to), and before they knew it, the week was over, Nysse and Clarette were coming home for the weekend, and Kenric would be coming back from detention. Carly invited Oralie and Annabelle (and Slinky) over on Saturday. (Well, she invited Annabelle; Oralie didn't really have much of a choice, as Nysse would be there too. They were still debating about whether or not they should bring Slinky.)

* * *

On Saturday, Carly, Clarette, Nysse, Oralie, and Annabelle sat on a branchy tree in Carly and Clarette's yard, which was very convenient for climbing and had several cushions tied to it for extra comfort. Slinky had not been able to come due to the fact that he was sleeping, and if _anyone_ wakes a sleeping Slinky, their finger has exactly a 0% probability of being attached to their hand after 1.5 seconds.

"Base quest?" Clarette suggested.

"Odd number of people," Carly pointed out.

"I think I can fix that," said Nysse, grinning. "Show me Aden," she said, taking out her Imparter.

"He's going to kill you!" whispered Oralie.

"This rivalry has been going on longer than your life, Oralie."

"Why haven't I blocked you yet?" Aden greeted Nysse.

Nysse thought for a moment. "Because you enjoy having things to get back at me for," she declared. "Come to Clarette's. We need you for base quest."

Aden glared at her. "Only if I'm on a team with you and Clarette."  
"Not fair, Aden," said Oralie.

"Then I'm not coming."

"Fine," she said.

There was no possible way that the following game could be considered "fair," but given that Empathy was much more useful than the combined powers of a Conjurer, Hydrokinetic, and Shade in base quest, Carly, Annabelle, and Oralie managed to win. Aden, understandably, was furious, and immediately left.

"So, no rematch," sighed Clarette.

"Nope," said Carly, smirking.

* * *

After a boring session of Empathy on Monday, Oralie, who was far more excited about having lunch with Kenric again than she probably should have been considering that she had only known him for two weeks, ran up to Kenric in the lunch line and hugged him. It was quite awkward, but Kenric was happy to see Oralie too, so he hugged her back. "Hey, Oralie!" he said.

"Hi Kenric!"

"Hi," said the boy in front of Kenric, whom Oralie had not noticed before, smiling slightly. "I'm Emery."

"Oralie," said Oralie, smiling back.

Carly and Annabelle both tackled Kenric similar to how Oralie did, though not quite as hard. The four had bonded quite a bit within the last week. They introduced themselves to Emery, and they all found an empty table where they ate their (somewhat awful-tasting) lunch.

* * *

As the year went on, Kenric, Oralie, Carly, Annabelle, and Emery became very good friends. With the exception of Emery and possibly Kenric, they were all targeted by Velia and Zarina, so it was nice having friends who understood—and Emery, who, being a Level Three and a Telepath, probably scared the two girls a bit (not that they would ever admit that). They formed a close bond, and everything in life was going great.

Until Sir Terik announced the midterms.

Oralie had been doing quite well in her classes at Foxfire, but she wasn't sure she was quite ready to be tested on what she had learned. Empathy was easy for her, and it only took her the duration of study hall to study enough for most of her other classes, but combined with Elvin History—in which she was failing miserably—things were getting stressful. Annabelle was the only one in their friend group who was actually good at Evlin History, but she needed help with a few of her other subjects and didn't have time to help any of them, so that was how Oralie spent most of her time. She was trying (and failing) to memorize some dates one day in study hall when Kenric, who had given up on his own homework, looked over her shoulder. "Hey, I know this stuff," he said.

"You do?"  
"Yeah. This was last year's material. Sure, I nearly failed my final exam, but I know it."  
"Then how come you aren't helping us?!" Carly blurted out.

"Keep your voices down!" hissed one of the Mentors.

Kenric sighed. "Meet me after school tomorrow," he whispered. "Sorry, Emery," he added, "I don't know any of your stuff."

"I'll live," said Emery. "But for learning Level Two stuff, it usually helps to actually study."

Kenric glared at Emery.

* * *

The next day, Carly, Oralie, and Emery met up with Kenric after school to go study together. Kenric would help Carly and Oralie, and Emery would help Kenric. (Emery, being a Level Three, had no one to help him.) They were at Kenric's house, sitting at a table in the kitchen (Kenric's desk couldn't fit all four of them). Kenric's mom had made them a giant bowl of custard bursts and managed to get Kat, Kenric's younger sister who did not yet attend Foxfire, under control. They were now eating the custard bursts and quizzing Carly and Oralie on Level One history material.

"Who were the first Councillors?" asked Emery.

"There was a Vacker and a couple other ones no one cares about," said Carly.

Emery sighed. "Specific names, Carly. You're not getting anywhere with answers like that."

Carly threw her hands up. "Well, I'm not getting anywhere anyway, so I might as well put something. I might at least get partial credit."  
"Not happening," said Emery, shaking his head.

"So who _were_ the first Councillors?" Carly asked after a brief silence.

Emery rolled his eyes. "Idris Vacker, Aldric Sencen, and Regina Endal."

"Who were joined two years later by Councillors Amielle, Edith, Alfrid, Liora, Elric, Rissa, Algar, Briana, and Sloane," added Oralie.

"One year later," Kenric corrected.

Oralie sighed. "I'll get it someday."

"Wait, Councillor Liora's been a Councillor that long?"  
"Yes, Carly," said Emery, exasperated. "Kenric, do you have any studying methods that might work for these people?"  
Kenric thought for a moment. "I think I just banged my head against a wall a few times," he said.

"Not helping, Kenric."

* * *

 **AN: Yay, I have another chapter! I'm going to be skipping around like this a bit in the first few years because there isn't too much significant plot in there, but I will add some fun scenes. It just won't have too much detail. I hope I'll be able to update more, but I have a lot of work for school and personal stuff. But I won't forget about this story!**

 **Thanks to The Glitter Ninja, SnowSlushIce, and ClaryJace4ever for favoriting and following!**

 **And thanks to those of you who reviewed:**

 **The Giltter Ninja: Thank you so much! I just hope I can actually develop the characters. I haven't written much with OCs or minor characters, so I don't know how this will turn out.**

 **Xylia Neo: Thank you!**

 **SnowSlushIce: THANKS!**

 **ClaryJace4ever: THANK YOU!**

 **word count - 1,136**


	5. Chapter 5

At last, midterms came. They were all terrified that they were going to fail, of course, but they were prepared and at least felt confident enough to put on their thinking caps and walk through the doors to their exams.

Oralie's first exam was Alchemy, which was one of her best subjects, so she wasn't too nervous. It turned out all she had to do was mix up some things, and everything went perfectly. Until the second to last step.

She wasn't sure how she managed to be so clumsy, or why she wasn't as careful with that step—it was probably because the element she was using wasn't particularly dangerous—but the result was a very embarassing spill on the ground. Her face went red.

To Oralie's surprise, Lady Alvena smiled. "Well, I can't say my star prodigy spilled anything, so I suppose I'll just deduct a couple points for understandable imperfection and say-"

She was cut off as Lord Neirin, Lady Alvena's brother and Oralie's Empathy Mentor, burst into the room. "Hey sis, Oralie's la- HOLY VERMINION ALVENA DID YOU PEE IN HER EXAM?!"

"Yeah, I guess I'll say that. Go to your next exam, Oralie."

* * *

Empathy went quite well, save for the bird that somehow got into the room and wouldn't leave. (This bird actually got Oralie some extra credit for successfully reading its emotions, something that progidies are usually only capable of doing two or three years after manifesting.) Oralie's other exams also went well, until Elvin History, which she was quite sure she failed.

At last the day was over, and Oralie hung her thinking cap back on her locker and then went home to change. Her parents would take her shopping for gifts without Aden and Nysse—Nysse was old enough to go out on her own and Aden had had the brilliant idea of getting all his gifts the day before.

* * *

In the end, Oralie found gifts for all her friends: a sketchpad for Annabelle, who constantly doodled and had little room in her notebook for notes, a special hair elixir for Carly, who had always wanted streaks of scarlet in her wavy blonde hair, some human novels for Emery, who had recently finished reading every work of fiction in all the libraries at Foxfire, and a bag of the little edible flowers that the gnomes grew in their garden for Kenric, who had declared them better than mallowmelt when he first tasted them. She had also gotten Aden a new bag, as Slinky had been playing with his old one the day before, which left it in a state that resembled cut-off hair more than it resembled a bag. (Contrary to Aden's immediate suspicion, this was not the result of Nysse and Oralie's boredom.)

She couldn't get Nysse anything, as the elite levels had a different exam schedule and different traditions, so she went off to school the next day with the gifts she had gotten her other friends, relieved that the period of intense studying was finally over. First she dropped off Annabelle's and Carly's, then Aden's, ignoring the glares from the Level Five girls who probably didn't know they were siblings and thought she had a crush or something, and then Emery's. She went into the Level Two wing to drop off Kenric's, hoping she wouldn't run into Zarina.

"Oh, look, it's the freaky genius."

 _Of course,_ Oralie thought to herself, _I go in at the one time Zarina isn't there and run into Velia._

"Oh, look, it's the evil little bunny rabbit," said Emery from behind her, popping the bubble Velia was trying to reach and taking a sip of the lushberry juice.

Velia looked more like a tomato than Slinky dipped in red paint. "I was studying human culture!" she hissed, then stormed off to join Zarina and some other people Oralie couldn't be botherd to remember the names of under one of the Pures. Velia had worn a pair of bunny ears imported from a human costume shop for a project in her multispeciesial studies class, and though Emery was the only one who had seen her in them (besides her Mentor), he could always get her to go away by using the nickname "evil little bunny rabbit."

Oralie and Emery found Kenric, Carly, and Annabelle, and they spent a while popping bubbles until there weren't any left. Soon they were all in the cafeteria, holding their thinking caps without opening their presents while waiting for their parents. They had decided to all go to Annabelle's that evening to open all their gifts for various reasons, though mostly because nothing embarassing would happen to them that Velia or Zarina would see, and they could pay closer attention to the embarassing gifts that Velia and Zarina got (purely for the purpose of having a defense that would keep them away). At nightfall, they would have an aurenflare with Clarette, Nysse, Aden, and Kat (Emery and Annabelle had no siblings).

At last all the prodigies' parents entered, and Oralie stood on her tiptoes, looking for her dad (her mom had been meeting with Aden's Mentors). She found him fairly quickly.

"You passed!" he said, smiling widely.

"All of them?"  
"All of them."

* * *

Oralie, Aden, and their parents returned home to Willowlight to the scent of the legendary soup that only Wynn, Raelyn, and Ainslie, the gnomes who worked there, knew how to make. Oralie squealed at the thought and ran inside to get out of her Foxfire uniform and put down her gifts. Aden sighed and rolled his eyes as Oralie ran back outside wearing her favorite warm flowy tunic before he had even gotten to the door.

Willowlight was a relatively small house, with only two stories—one with a living area and kitchen, and one with four bedrooms and a room in which miscellaneous things were kept, nicknamed the Room of Doom when Slinky had claimed it all to himself. By elvin standards, Willowlight was a small cottage. But the outside was something that made it more spectacular than the inside of an elvin castle.

The entire place was shaped like a circle. There was no wall or fence marking the circumference, but rather a neat ongoing sequence of thornless roses which were easy to step over but so difficult to knock down that some doubted they were real flowers. In the center was the house itself, which was shaped like a perfect cube, but the vines deliberately grown on the walls to create beautiful patterns made it look like it was part of nature. The rest of the space looked like an enchanted forest from a human fairytale. At first it seemed like just a lot of trees and a lot of paths, but then you noticed the little glowing lights carefully placed to create the illusion of something like faeries, and all the stunningly gorgeous types of flowers with petals as soft as feathers that you'd never recognize because Wynn, Raelyn, and Ainslie created each individual one and created them unique. Elves didn't usually pay much attention to the things humans thought up, but someone—probably one of her parents, either Zilla or Zeke—did, and then Willowlight was created. There were little spots of wonder hidden among the trees that you could find if you took the right path. Oralie, Aden, Nysse, and even Ainslie, who was a very young gnome, had spent their childhood exploring, and it didn't take them long to learn every path and every tree and every hidden wonder. There was a fountain with a statue of a mermaid (though mermaids were a human myth, they were beautiful) painted with such precise detail and realism it sometimes seemed as if she were alive but frozen in time, watching the children grow up while she stayed there motionless, water flowing from her cupped hands. In one spot, there was a net tied to several trees which was woven from strands of silk with small crystals scattered around, which created a dazzling pattern of light no matter what time it was. The most visited spot in the forest of Willowlight (besides the house) was a round wooden table which had seated between five (Wynn, Raelyn, Nysse, Zilla, and Zeke) and eleven (Wynn, Raelyn, Ainslie, Zilla, Zeke, Nysse, Nysse's boyfriend, Aden, Aden's girlfriend, Oralie, and their neighbors' young gnome Calla, who had become quite close with Ainslie and Oralie). It was a tradition for them to have the delicious soup that their only three gnomes made at this spot on special occasions. The first ones were for Nysse, Aden, Ainslie, and Oralie's births, and for the past few years they were for the Opening Ceremonies, midterms, and final exams.

Oralie was very, very happy that she was one of the prodigies whose midterms her family was celebrating that year. It may have been their first one without Nysse, but she was still happy to be eating soup with her family again, this time on a day that was a special occasion for her.

* * *

 **AN: Wow, this was a long chapter! It's not the best, and some parts might be kinda rushed and others might be too slow, but I have the chapter! I'm having a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you're all enjoying reading it :)**

 **Thanks to pen. edge for reviewing! Yeah, they're just little Foxfire prodigies not knowing that they'll go on to be the leaders of the world ... *cries because they're going to grow up and they're going to be older than me***

 **word count - 1,548**


	6. Chapter 6

Later that day, Carly, Oralie, Kenric, Emery, and Annabelle were sitting by a river at Riverswirl, where Annabelle lived, opening their presents. Emery decided to go first.

The first thing he pulled out appeared to be a crush cuff. At first he looked confused, but then he burst out laughing and almost dropped it into the river.

"What's so funny?" asked Carly, looking over at the crush cuff. She smiled and laughed a little. "Who gave you this?"

"What does it say?" Kenric looked over to read what was written on it. "No one!" he cried, reading it aloud.

Oralie and Annabelle started laughing too, but Annabelle looked a bit like she was glaring at the crush cuff.

"It's from one of the Level Threes," said Emery once they had calmed down a bit. "I can't remember anyone's name in my level, but it's from one of them."

He moved on to his next gift, which was some rare Prattles pins from Carly. "Now how did you find a unicorn?"

"Why would I tell you that?"

Emery opened the human novels from Oralie and a Riddler from Kenric, and then got to a painting that could only be from Annabelle of the five of them in a horribly failed group hug. He smiled. Annabelle blushed.

Carly started opening her presents next. She immediately drank the hair elixir from Oralie, admiring the streaks of scarlet now in her hair. Emery had gotten her a large box of assorted popular sweets, which she loved, and from Kenric just straight-up sugar.

"Do we really need her to be more energetic?" said Oralie.

Carly glared at her. "Yes, Oralie, you do need me to be more energetic."

From Annabelle, Carly also got a painting, this time of Carly falling out of the tree they normally sat in at Sunglade, Carly's house. "How are you so good, Annabelle? I can't even draw a flower! A FLOWER!"

Annabelle shrugged and started opening her presents, which were all art-related. A sketchpad from Oralie, new pens from Kenric (she was always losing hers, and the ones she didn't lose ran out of ink), high-quality paints from Emery, and from Carly a set of rainbow lipsticks ("for face art"). Annabelle communicated her thoughts on Carly's interesting gift by writing the word "really?" on Carly's lips with blue lipstick. Carly responded by writing the word "yes" in purple (much less neatly).

Oralie opened her gifts next. She got a painting from Annabelle of her hanging upside down from a low tree branch and being yelled at by Lord Neirin, an _imp styling kit_ from Emery ("your imp is the ugliest being to walk this Earth, Oralie"), and a golden bracelet from Carly ("you only have silver jewelry"). "Emery's was taking up your whole thinking cap," said Kenric before she could ask him where his gift was. "Here." He handed her a small box.

Oralie opened it to find a pink jewel hanging from a golden chain. It was beautiful. "Thank you," she said, opening the clasp and placing it around her neck. She noticed that the bracelet from Carly matched it perfectly. She looked at Carly suspiciously. "Is it a coincidence that that these match perfectly?"  
Carly shrugged. "You needed something to wear with it," she said.

Kenric got the _Harry Potter_ books—which were apparently very popular in the human world—from Emery, who "needed someone to discuss theories with." He laughed when he saw Annabelle's painting of him falling into the mermaid fountain at Willowlight, and sighed when he saw that Carly got him ten boxes of Prattles ("you need to try them sometime, I mean, you can't go through life never having had Prattles…"). When he saw the edible flowers Oralie got him, he almost screamed ("Oralie thank you! These flowers are life!").

By the time they were done opening and admiring (and, in Kenric and Carly's case, eating) their gifts, the sun was going down, and they were almost ready for the aurenflare.

-o-

They all quickly went home to drop off their gifts, then met back at Riverswirl for the aurenflare. Oralie, Nysse, Aden, Emery, Kenric, Kat, Carly, Clarette, and Annabelle all sat in a circle, waiting for Misu and Sylvana, two of the gnomes, to light it. Sylvana was whispering something to Misu in gnomish, looking a little sad and worried. Misu patted her on the back and nodded as she went inside the house.

"What's Sylvana doing?" asked Annabelle.

"Sylvana cannot join us today," said Misu. "Your father wishes to speak to her."

"Is something wrong?" Annabelle inquired further.

"Do not worry, Belle," Misu reassured her with a smile. "Sylvana is fine."

The black leaves were set up in a specific spot where the rivers which swirled around the yard created a small island. There were five small bridges set up over the rivers which created a sort of moat, each of which was occupied by two people. Nysse sat with Aden (despite their sibling rivalry, they were really very close), Carly sat with Clarette, Oralie sat with Kenric, Annabelle sat with Emery, and Kat sat with Misu (whom she had instantly taken a liking to—she refused to sit with anyone else). Misu managed to get away from Kat long enough to light the bonfire.

The spark ignited a flame which somehow contained every color imaginable, yet still managed to look more like fire than a rainbow, or even rain, despite the flying sparks that looked like splashes of water.

It was the most beautiful thing Oralie had ever seen. Kenric and Annabelle looked lost in thought, like they were going to capture the beauty in poetry and painting, respectively. Clarette moved farther away—as a Hydrokinetic, she was terrified of fire—but still looked amazed. Carly moved even closer; she looked like she would fall off the bridge if she went forward any more. Nysse and Aden had been to an aurenflare once or twice before, but the effect was no less magical. Emery seemed to be looking more at Annabelle, but Oralie pretended not to notice. Kat was jumping up and down, holding on to Misu's arm. (It should be noted that Kat was only six.)

They roasted muffins over the fire, which turned out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a surprise burst of cream in the center. Once they were all stuffed with muffins, they watched the fire until at last it was finished and released a rainbow of flame into the sky, which exploded into sparks of white.

* * *

 **AN: Hi! Wow, it's been forever since I've updated this. I've been doing other things ... maybe not productive things, but ... other things. Okay, some of the things I was doing might have been homework. But honestly, most weren't. So. Things that might have happened since I last updated and might have happened before: I got an Instagram fandom account (moonlarks) and an Instagram art account (drawingartstuff) - you can follow those if you'd like; I got a tumblr blog (kotlcfangirl) so if you want you can check that out ... yeah, that's basically all that happened. I might start drawing my OCs from this story, what do you think? Also, there might have been foreshadowing in this chapter ... anyway thanks to EmUnited and Xylia Neo for reviewing!**

 **word count - 1095**


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